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HP derides BlackBerry PlayBook OS as a 'fast imitation' of webOS, RIM says it's just good UI design
It's not rare to hear talk of other operating systems employing webOS-like elements -- we've been asking to see its elegant notification system in iOS for years -- but RIM's BlackBerry Playbook borrows so heavily from the UI concepts of the software built by Palm and now owned by HP that it could easily be confused for a webOS tablet. It handles multiple concurrent applications using a card view and allows you to shut down unwanted apps by swiping them off the screen, a multitasking implementation that exhibits "uncanny similarities" in HP's eyes to its own TouchPad tablet. Still, the Hewlett Packard team insist that they're focused on their own products and will "keep innovating, we'll keep honing and those guys hopefully will continue to see the value in it and keep following us by about a year." Ouch. RIM's response, as espoused by Jeff McDowell, has been to say that "when you're trying to optimize user experience that juggles multitasking, multiple apps open at once and on a small screen, you're going to get people landing on similar kinds of designs." This essentially sidesteps the issue by throwing a subtle compliment HP's way, but it brings up an interesting question -- shouldn't companies aim to make the best software possible, in spite of it potentially looking like a ripoff of someone else's work?
Blizzard announces 5th annual pumpkin carving contest
Hallow's End is almost upon us, and Blizzard has once again announced their annual pumpkin carving contest. This is always a hoot -- I was only ever able to do the usual jack-o-lantern (once I did a Batman symbol, but it never really worked out), but there are always some real professionals in the mix on these contests, as you can see in the gallery below. Basically, carve a pumpkin featuring something Blizzard-related, showing "high levels of originality, craftsmanship, and possibly humor," light it up with a candle or other source, and then submit a picture over on the site by two weeks from today, Wednesday, October 28th.And some nice prizes this year: the top five submissions will all pick up a nice 32gb iPod touch, apparently supplied by none other than Apple (and of course you'll be able to run those Blizzard mobile apps if you win). Good luck to everyone who enters -- go grab your knife and the biggest "gourd-like squash" you can find and get to carving!%Gallery-75579%
Reminder: Enter WoW Insider's Guild of the Month contest
Don't forget: if you haven't entered our Guild of the Month contest yet, do so now -- we'll be choosing April's winner in just a few days. All you have to do is send about 200 words on how awesome your guild is to guildofthemonth@gmail.com, and be from either the US or Canada (excluding Quebec -- sorry Quebecois and EU folks, them's the legal rules). The winner will get a profile of their guild right here on WoW Insider (our first group of winners, back in March, was doing some amazing things with both raiding and professions, but we're awarding the prize every month based on the criteria of performance in raiding, originality, and community), and they'll also pick up a raid pack for their officers from our friends at Warcraft.Swagdog.com.If you entered for March, you've got to enter again for April (we want to give everyone a chance every month), and official rules are right here if you need them. Good luck to everyone who enters -- we've gotten some terrific submissions already, and we can't wait to spotlight one of the best guilds in the game.
DS games are more original says Pocket Gamer
Pocket Gamer painstakingly grabbed data off of Metacritic's website and analyzed each portable system's line up to see how much of the top 60 games on each system are "original." This subjective test revealed that the DS has an originality score of 47 percent, versus PSP's 15. Games like Nintendogs, Brain Age and Elite Beat Agents helped boost the DS's originality ratings through the roof. When breaking down genres, the DS has 28% of its games in the genre-breaking "other" category. The PSP only has 3% of its games there.Although the PSP may not have as many original games, it still beats the DS in terms of number of highly rated games. The PSP has 37 games with an 80 average or above, while the DS only has 27 (and three of those games are called Nintendogs.)
